Massachusetts’s Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, whose ancestors ate with the pilgrims and gave birth to the Thanksgiving tradition, have brought the once-dead language spoken at that historic meal back to life, according to a Thursday report by the United Kingdom’s Independent newspaper.
The tribe’s vice-chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird spearheaded the effort, which has produced 19 new native speakers, after a series of prophetic dreams. The Independent described the method by which Baird worked to resurrect the ancient tongue:
Two decades ago, Ms. Baird, then in her 20s and with no formal training in linguistics, started to develop a grammar, with the help of other tribal members and experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She also used historical documents written in Wampanoag, including personal diaries, land claims and a version of the King James Bible printed in 1663.
She said she was inspired to do so, after experiencing a series of dreams in which she saw her ancestors speaking to her in a language she could not understand – Wopanaotooaok, or Wopânâak. Her ancestors were among those who hosted a harvest celebration with the Pilgrims in 1621 that helped form the basis for the US’s Thanksgiving tradition.
The article also reports the moment the language came creaking back to life, as Baird spoke it into her child’s ear:
Before July 4, 2004, there had not been a native speaker of Wopanaotooaok for at least six generations. That was when Ms. Baird gave birth to her fifth child, Mae.
The first word she she spoke to her new daughter was Kuweeqâhsun, which is used to mean “good morning”. It’s literal meaning is “you are in the light”.
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